DIAGNOSTIC RADIOPHARMACEUTICALS FOR LOCALIZATION IN TARGET TISSUES EXHIBITING A REGIONAL PH SHIFT RELATIVE TO SURROUNDING TISSUES

摘要

A radiopharmaceutical chemical compound comprising a radioactive isotope, other than an isotope of iodine, in chemical combination with at least one amine group. The compound has a lipophilicity sufficiently high at a pH of 7.6 to permit passage of the compound from the blood of a mammal into a target organ or tissue and sufficiently low at a pH of 6.6 to prevent rapid return of the compound from the target organ or tissue to the blood. The compound has a percent protein binding of less than ninety percent. A method for selectively depositing a radiopharmaceutical compound in at least one target tissue or organ of a mammal, which tissue or organ has a significantly different intracellular pH than the blood of the mammal, by introducing the compound of the invention into the bloodstream of the mammal.